Western Sydney homes and businesses next on the NBN

High-speed Internet is set to replace existing landline and Internet services in some 20,000 homes and businesses in Western Sydney as the NBN is launched in the premises.

Starting February 20, parts of Penrith will have access to high-speed Internet, with parts of Homebush, Blacktown, Windsor, Riverstone, and Lindcombe following suit starting March 20 onwards.

However, moving to the network does not happen automatically.

According to Darren Rudd, NBN Co spokesman, residents and business owners in the areas need to move their phone and Internet services to the National Broadband Network if they want to be able to continue using those services.

Internet will only be available through mobile phones for those who choose not to make the switch.

Currently, there are already 95,000 homes and businesses in NSW that are connected to the NBN.

Another 400,000 farms and businesses in remote areas are expecting to gain access to the NBN as they await the launch of two new satellites later this year. These will deliver high-speed broadband to those areas that are unreachable through underground phone lines. Small satellite dishes will be given to all remote property owners to enable them to access the new service that’s worth $1.8 billion.

By mid-2016, NBN Co aims to have reached 1.9 million homes and businesses in over 400 cities nationwide.

Jason Pilgrim, Richmond business owner, said office productivity has increased by as much as an hour per day thanks to the switch to the NBN. This is because they no longer needed to endure slow downloads or wait for service dropouts to get resolved.